‘Smoke: A London Peculiar’ returns

One of Housmans favourite irregular fanzine-style London-centred magazines, ‘Smoke: A London Peculiar’, sadly stopped printing a couple of years ago. The closure of many stockists blew a hole in its finances and it was forced to stop printing before its time. So it is great to hear that Smoke is returning, online at least. Here’s Smoke’s Matt to explain:

Those of you with long memories might recall a magazine called Smoke: a London Peculiar. You might even occasionally wake up in the morning and wonder what happened to it. The most paranoid of you might, when you’re feeling particularly vulnerable, seriously start to believe that it was all your fault.

Well, what happened was this: with the publishing industry collapsing around our ears and words increasingly being read on screens, we decided to take a short sabbatical. And then we decided that a short sabbatical wasn’t really long enough, and had a long one instead. And during this time we plotted and schemed and concocted and dreamed until…

And what form will the new Smoke take? Well, the best way to find out is to go to the website, and have a look at the opening post; and then, once you’ve realised that it doesn’t really explain anything, have a look under the “About…” tab.

Essentially, though, we’ll be doing pretty much as we did before – publishing words and images inspired by London – only this time the words will appear first online, and then be collected into attractive papery volumes on various themes and in various sizes when the time seems right. Though a few projects will work the other way round, i.e. the idea for a book will come first, followed by an appeal for contributions. At the moment, we have a couple of such projects in mind: a book on the London Olympics – not the actual running and jumping, obviously – and another on the grand history of London music venues. But the precise form these take will only emerge over time, as contributions arrive. More info is under the New Book Projects tab on the website.

That’s the gist. Though I should probably, at this point, also remind you that Smoke has a Facebook Page, and occasionally Tweets, just in case either of these things seem relevant to your life and don’t simply make your skin crawl.

And, finally, we always like to end on a mercenary note, so… don’t forget that back issues of Smoke (and our board game, Soho!) are still available, if anyone wants them.